June 05, 2009

Senate Judiciary Republicans Staffing up for Sotomayor

The Republican staff on the Senate Judiciary Committee has added four lawyers so far to work on the Supreme Court nomination of Sonia Sotomayor.

As previously reported, Elisebeth Cook has taken on the role of GOP chief counsel for the nomination. She is a former assistant attorney general in charge of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Policy and previously was an associate at D.C.’s Cooper & Kirk.

Working with Cook are three other lawyers who also are working on a temporary basis:

Ryan Nelson, who was a deputy general counsel at the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush. He previously was a deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and an associate at Sidley Austin;

Ashok Pinto, who was a deputy associate counsel in the Bush White House and previously an associate at Foley & Lardner; and

Seth Wood, who was a counsel in the Office of Legal Policy and previously an associate at what was then Wiley Rein & Fielding.

The four lawyers are part of the Republicans’ core nominations team on the Judiciary Committee. Individual senators on the committee could also hire temporary counsel for the confirmation process.